


Fixed at Zero

by RedXChan



Category: Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02
Genre: Digital World, Evil Digimon, Fanmade Digimon, Gen, Tri is not cannon to this story, but i may implement a few things from tri, ships galore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-30
Updated: 2015-11-30
Packaged: 2018-05-04 01:56:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5315930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedXChan/pseuds/RedXChan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ever since the defeat of MaloMyotismon, the Chosen Children thought that the Digital World (and their own) was safe from harm. Little did they know, deep within the Digital World's code, a Digimon was brewing, growing and stretching over the world they came to love. Now, it's power is infecting the world, darkening it and turning the Digimon into Glitch version of themselves, and not even the Original Chosen Children can figure out how to fight against this new enemy. </p><p>With the arrival of University student, Carter, Digital Design trainee, Jomei, the mysterious yet knowing, Jaycee, and Laney, the girl who can see the Digital World from the Real World, the answers to this creature's identity and powers may be revealed yet. But can this new set of DigiDestined figure out their true connection to this Digital creature, or will they (along with the others) watch the Digital World become a corrupted mass of data?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fragments of a Whole

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This stories Theme Song is "Come Together" by Echosmith

__

* * *

Sometimes a story is told by one, but sometimes there's much more to a story than one person alone can tell. The saying goes that there are two sides to every story, but actually, this story has four sides. But this story doesn't only belong to them, as they are all but fragments of a whole: A whole that both saved the world and almost brought forth its destruction.

But perhaps this story would be better told by those four fragments. Each voice will share their beginning, middle, and end, and when they're all finished, all the holes, the mysteries will be filled to create a final, lasting image.

Who am I? Well, I'm no one important. I'm just here to prepare you for the story about to unfold. The story you're about to hear is about how an evil digital creature gets created and travels across dimensions, disrupting and bringing together several other stories throughout the universe.

But enough of me, how about we let our fragments do the talking from now on?

* * *

**Carter Jones**

* * *

"Oh, c'mon, Carter! It isn't that bad!" said a purple haired teen, plopping down on the bench beside her friend.

The girl beside her, Carter, only glanced up from her work in her sketchpad. "I don't like sports," she said, stealing a look to the field across from her.

Apparently, a soccer match was being held between some neighborhood kids, a few of which were friends with Yolei, the girl Carter had been convinced to spend the day with. Not only had she been secluded to her dorm-room (provided by her new school) for the past two months, but her only friend in school decided that she needed friends her own age and thus set her up to hang out with Yolei for the evening.

And she hadn't yet decided if the outing would end well or not.

"Oh. Well . . ." Yolei shifted about uncomfortably, looking between her friends and the girl beside her. "My friends and I are going out for ice cream when the game is finished. You up for that?"

Carter instantly stopped the stroke she was on and fully looked over at Yolei. "Who are your friends?" she asked, though the excitement in her voice was detectable.

Yolei's face lit up with a smile. "So, you see that spiky haired kid with the goggles? Not the big one, the little one. Yeah, him. That's my friend, Davis. The bigger one is Tai. And the kid who can't kick a soccer ball to save his life, that's T.K. He's better at basketball. And if you look across the field at the cheerleaders, the girl with the short hair, wearing a camera around her neck, that's our friend, Kari. She's Tai's younger sister, and Davis has a major mando crush on her!"

Carter had never heard one person talk so fast in her life, but she was able to follow close enough to match names with faces, so it wasn't too big of a deal.

"And Cody was  _supposed_  to meet us here . . . but it looks like he might have gotten caught up at Kendo," Yolei finished, craning her neck to look around.

Just then, a soccer ball knocked against Carter's leg, and she looked up to see one of the players running towards her. This wasn't one that Yolei had named. The boy looked barely younger than she was, with short, dark hair and a smile on his face.

"Sorry about that," he said, and Carter kicked the ball out towards him. "I'm Ken." He held his hand out to her.

"Carter," she replied, shaking his hand. "Is he one of your friends?" she asked Yolei, who was still grinning, but now her cheeks were red.

"Y-yeah!" she said in reply. "Ken goes to a different school. He only came to play in the game today on Davis' request."

Ken laughed and shook his head. "It's better than sitting at home all day doing homework."

Even Carter cracked a smile. "So, are you hanging around after the game too?"

Ken nodded but was interrupted by the goggle boy she recognized as Davis. "Hey, Ken, c'mon! We need the ball to finish the game!"

"Guess I should return this," Ken said, waving goodbye and heading back towards the field. "I'm coming, Davis, don't have a cow!"

Carter puffed her cheeks out and gripped her sketchpad tightly. "That Davis kid is so  _rude_!"

"You think so?" Yolei asked, laughing. "He's not so bad. He just tends to rub people the wrong way at first."

She chose not to reply this time, but turned her attention to the soccer match (which she hadn't previously been paying attention to). When Yolei said that T.K wasn't too great at soccer, she wasn't kidding. The blond haired kid couldn't keep the ball for more than a few seconds, and someone was always bumping or running into him. It didn't seem to bother him though, because he seemed to get this determined smile every time it happened. It probably helped that the Kari girl was clapping for him and cheering him on.

Ken and Davis were both actually good players, but she couldn't tell if they were on the same team or not because they kept arguing, yet they didn't fight for the ball like all the others did. Ken seemed to laugh about it more though, while Davis looked like he got more frustrated with the whole thing.

And then there was the player who looked older than the others, Tai. He had the ball a lot of the time and seemed to like to bounce the ball off various parts of his body. For some reason, she wondered how he was able to bounce it on his head, what with his giant mass of brown hair and all; she didn't see how his hair didn't block the ball from hitting his skull. Well, maybe that was actually a good thing.

* * *

**Jomei Saito**

* * *

"Cody! Nyeh. Earth to Cody!" The seventeen year old girl who walked into the Dojo bent down, knocking lightly on the head of the boy sitting at the entrance, gazing off into nowhere.

He blinked a few times to clear the haze of his thoughts and looked up at her, drawing his brows together. "Jomei? What are you doing here?"

A wide grin spread across her face as she clasped her hands together behind her back. "I'm taking you to get some ice cream!"

The boy, quite a few years younger than she herself, gazed up at her quizzically. "Wasn't I doing that anyway?"

Her cheeks burst out in shades of red and through her lips came a nervous, lighthearted laughter. "Well, yeah, probably. That's what Grandpa said. But I wanted some ice cream, too! So, my treat?"

The brown haired boy smiled politely back at her as he stood and gave a stiff nod. Jomei had spent the majority of the last year working on some big secret project for her younger brother, so she hadn't been around much. Before she started working on her project, random outings between her, her brother, and Cody were actually pretty common. Her and her brother would often come sit in on Cody's Judo practice, and then they'd all walk home, or in the case of her brother, roll home. But around three years ago, Jomei had gotten some kind of 'spectacular' idea of a present for her brother and had basically disappeared off the face of the earth. Around the same time, Cody had gotten involved in the crisis of the Digital World along with the rest of the new Chosen Children. While Cody's digital fiasco had ended on a good note, him and his friends had been visiting the Digital World quite frequently, and he himself hadn't left much free time for anything else. Jomei, on the other hand, had become stumped not too long after the huge digital mess concluded and had put her project on hold. But the year before, she regained some random inspiration and had only recently taken another break from the project. So, it was an understatement to say the two hadn't had any bonding time in quite a while. And it seemed she wanted to go about fixing that.

As they walked, Cody's nose scrunched up in query, and then he looked up at his cousin. "Where's Lane?"

Jomei's lips curved down, and her pace slowed ever so slightly before the smallest of forced smiles came over her face. "His wheelchair's been acting up, so he's at home playing video games. He did say to ask you to come by sometimes; it's been too long."

The culminating guilt seemed to overtake her expression just then as she cast another forced smile towards Cody, but the sadness laced within it did little to ease his own guilt. It was obvious Jomei felt bad about being a contributing factor to Lane and Cody's diminished time together: she WAS his chaperone for leaving home, considering their parents were far too busy to accompany him much of anywhere. But Cody felt his own fair share of blame. He'd had plenty of free time the last two years to see his cousins, but he'd spent the bulk of it in the Digital World with his friends.

Sometimes he forgot that Jomei and himself were the only real friends Lane had.

The rest of the walk passed in silence, just the sound of shuffling feet on pavement continuing on and on until the little pink swirl of the ice cream shop came into view. Inside the shop sent chills down Jomei's arms, as unlike her cousin, her arms were only covered by the thin fabric of her button up shirt. The smell of peppermint filled the air, swirling with hints of strawberries and oranges, almost overwhelming her nose. From across the shop, she spotted a group of kids with about three tables pushed together, a purple haired girl standing from her seat and waving her arm about frantically in their direction.

"Rocky Road, right?" Jomei asked, grabbing a hold of Cody's arm and stopping. He nodded, and she smiled. "Go ahead and sit with your friends; I'll get the ice cream."

Jomei knew that Cody had made quite a group of new friends in recent years, and the shell that he had surrounded himself in had softened considerably, making him much more likely to smile and go with the flow as opposed to his 'I really shouldn't, mother is making blah blah tonight.' She had to admit it was probably a huge thanks to the people gathered around that table for the change she noticed in her cousin, but in the deep recesses of her heart, she could feel the bite, the resentment towards them buried underneath her gratitude. She truly was grateful for the new life Cody had been introduced to; it couldn't have been a fun life he led before, even with the occasional outing the three of them went on. But there was that thought in the back of her mind that he wasn't her little Cody anymore. It was almost like a mother seeing her son spread his wings, but the harsh bite to the feeling wouldn't let up with that explanation. There was still that dark thought eating at her that those people had taken Cody away from, not only her, but from her brother.

Lane was alone enough as it was, and Cody knew that better than anyone.

"Cody." With a smile that she used to shake off her negativity, Jomei held the ice cream out to her cousin, who gave an appreciative nod, and looked around the tables at the diverse cast before her.

At the middle table sat a set of three chairs facing her. Two of the chairs were occupied by two boys who looked almost like older and younger versions of each other, aside from the fact that the obvious younger of the two had a round pair of goggles smushing against his maroon tinted brown hair. Across from them sat two others who looked roughly around the age of the goggle boy, one boy with blonde hair and a white hat, and the other a girl with short brown hair.

The table to their left had the purple haired girl who had waved them over, along with a black haired boy of probably the same age. Cody sat in the chair opposite of the purple haired girl, and beside him sat another girl whose presence made her seem a bit older, but the awkwardness and rigidness of her posture told Jomei otherwise.

The table to their right was unoccupied aside from a single male with dark blonde hair, his feet propped up on the table, arguing some kind of nonsense back and forth with the older of the two lookalikes. There were plenty of open seats, four between the first two tables, and five at the other table.

For a few minutes, Jomei just stood there awkwardly shifting her eyes between the people at the table and her ice cream as she ate in silence, until the lone wolf at the right table grabbed her attention.

"You wanna sit down?" he asked, rolling his feet off of the table and directing her attention towards the seat across from him.

She smiled politely to him and pulled the chair out slowly as if to not startle the other table goers. Sitting wasn't any less awkward, still eating her ice cream and looking around with a lost look as conversations flew past her, so many she couldn't dare keep up with any one of them.

"You're Cody's cousin?" the same lone wolf asked, and when she opened her mouth to question him, he silenced her with a sly smile. "Cody mentioned it before you came over. Jomei, was it?"

She nodded, the chorus of voices around her dimming slightly as she focused her ears on the blonde. "And you are?"

He smiled a little more honestly this time, a sense of pride coming over his character. "I'm Matt Ishida." The grin he displayed proved that there was much more to his prideful act, but in an act of defiance, Jomei decided not to ask, only lifting a brow with a complacent nod.

This only made Matt grin a little wider and lean back in his chair, the two facing off in what was almost a staring contest, that is until the doors to the shop opened and half the table roared back to life. Jomei barely had the time to glance over her shoulder before the newcomer(s) were ravaged with greetings and questions by the rest of the group. Eventually, she managed to peek up through her canopy of platinum blonde hair at the person now standing adjacent to her.

Just as she did, however, her mouth swung open, unleashing a name that silenced the entire table.

"Koushiro?"

"Koushiro? People still call you that, man?" the brown haired boy at the middle table asked after a moment of silence, but was ignored by a sigh from the freshly arrived red-headed teen.

"Hello Saito-san," he said, pulling out the chair beside her and sitting down. "I wasn't aware you all knew each other."

Jomei shook her head furiously, looking around and catching Matt's eye briefly before speaking. "Jomei is fine," she said. "They don't. I mean, I don't. I'm Cody's cousin."

He nodded in understanding, and their conversation was cut short as he was bombarded with questions.

"Where were ya, man? I thought you were gonna come watch the game!" said the same boy from before.

Koushiro raised his brows and pursed his lips slightly as he smiled. "I was working on a few complex trigonometric equations that had me stumped in Statistics."

"Oh," Jomei piped in, a sudden look of realization on her face. "You mean the ones from page three ninety-six? They  _were_ pretty puzzling, but it was simple trickery on the book's part. A lot of those equations required uncommon algebraic functions, but nothing too difficult once you knew what you were looking for."

The entire table, once again, simmered into a silence, each individual seeming to be eyeing Jomei carefully.

"What?" she asked, looking around. "We have Statistics together." Her face began to heat up, patches of pink growing on her cheeks as she looked down at her lap. "Sorry. Inner nerd."

Just then, the fluffy haired boy burst out into a fit of laughter, stopping only after Matt had to pat him on the back a few times to keep him from choking.

"Sorry, Sorry, I'm not laughing at you or anything. Izzy, why didn't you tell us you had a girlfriend?" he asked with a teasing smile.

Koushiro almost immediately started coughing on his own spit, wide eyed and pink cheeked.

"She isn't my  _girlfriend_ , Taichi!" Koushiro said loudly, glancing apologetically at Jomei. "Have you even introduced yourselves yet?" Though he made a valid point, it was obvious this was a tactic to change the topic.

Taichi blinked in realization, then scratched the back of his neck shyly. "Guess we didn't," he said with a lighthearted laugh. "I'm Taichi Kamiya, but you can call me Tai!"

Then, he nudged the 'mini-me' sitting beside him. "Ow! Did you have to elbow me?" the smaller boy asked, rubbing his ribs. "I'm Davis Motomiya. Davis is fine."

Jomei nodded as names were passed around the table.

"I'm Yolei! And this is Ken!" The girl with the purple hair and the black haired boy beside her.

"Carter," said the uncomfortable looking girl at the far end of the table.

"T.K. Matt's brother. Nice to meet you." The blonde boy across from Davis.

"I'm Kari Kamiya, Tai's younger sister." The brown haired girl sitting across from Taichi.

As she looked around the table, Jomei repeated everyone's names to herself, then smiled and stood, bowing slightly.

"I'm Jomei Saito, it's a pleasure to meet you all."

The tables then immersed themselves in idle chatter, some leaning across the table, some laughing and nudging their neighbors, and Jomei found herself in awe not only of how lively the group was, but of how easy it was for her to melt into their rhythm, talking animatedly with the others and laughing until her face turned red.

But along with all that laughter and fun was matched with nervousness and uncomfortableness, but not by the new coming Jomei.

It was the straitlaced, rigid Carter at the end of the table that had her own atmosphere.

* * *

**Carter Jones**

* * *

"You don't seem like you're enjoying yourself much," Cody said to the girl who sat beside him. "Is something the matter?"

Just as she shook her head to tell him no, Yolei's voice piped in. "She just moved here! A couple of months ago she started attending the Art University here in Odaiba."

"Art University?" Cody asked. "Pardon me, but you don't exactly look like you're out of secondary education."

A little of her nervousness subsided as she smiled. "I finished my education early in America. I was invited into the school."

Just then, Davis leaned halfway across the tables, his eyes wide like saucers. "America?! You're from America?!"

Carter's rigid form returned as she sent the maroon haired boy a pointed look. "Indeed."

Davis, completely oblivious to the apathetic change in the new girl, buzzed on with more and more questions. "Where at in America? Did you play any sports? You don't look like a sports girl. What about cheerleading? I bet you'd look good in our school's cheer uniform!"

With a refined clear of her throat, Carter cut Davis off and gave him an apathetic smile. "Where I come from is of none of your concern. But if you must know, I'm from Georgia. It's a small southern state towards the bottom of the US," she answered, folding her hands together in her lap. "And no, I'm not a fan of sports, particularly that game you were playing where you repeatedly fought Ken for the ball."

Finishing her sentence, Carter looked more towards Yolie as opposed to Davis, purposefully ignoring his cheerleader comment. Of course she didn't cheerlead! Albeit a lot of the uniforms were rather cute, and she wondered herself what she would look like a few times, her coordination would not allow for something of that caliber.

"Hehe," Davis scratched the back of his head as he grinned. "How come you're so fluent in Japanese? If you were raised in America, anyway."

"My mother is Japanese," she answered in a clipped tone. "She thought it important for me to know the language, should I ever choose to pursue a life in this nation."

Davis' questions flew out more and more, leaving most of the table to eavesdrop (though with how loud Davis was, it was more like overhearing), and once a few of them began to realize the annoyance Carter displayed that Davis was still oblivious to, Tai decided to speak up.

"It's getting late," Tai said, putting his palms on the table to push himself up. "Mom'll be making dinner soon, and I have to supervise, or it'll be jerky shakes all over again!"

"Hey, those weren't so bad at first!" Izzy cut in.

"Davis," Tai said, ignoring Izzy, "why don't you walk with us? Weren't you supposed to be home early today for failing that math paper?"

Davis shot out a few protests, his tanned cheeks darkening even more, but then he stood and pushed his chair in, pouting in defeat.

"We'll go with you," Matt said, motioning to himself and T.K. For a moment, Carter could have sworn there was some kind of silent conversation going on between Matt and the Jomei girl, but the silence was broken when said girl stood as well and walked up behind Cody.

"Us too," she said softly. "I really need to be getting Cody home."

Soon enough, the entire table was standing, aside from Carter, who was suddenly positive she would never fit in with this group. She wasn't like them; she didn't know where anyone lived, so she couldn't offer to walk with them because it was on her way. Even Jomei, who met everyone today the same as she, seemed to slide right into their circle perfectly. But not Carter; she didn't fit.

"Carter-" Yolei started before she was cut off by a vibration against her jeans.

All of the standing members of the group, minus Jomei who was just as lost as Carter was, looked down towards their own vibrations, immediately silenced as their little area of the shop shone with eight flashing lights.

* * *

**Laney Sharp**

* * *

"Laney, darling, are you alright?" asked a slender old woman with silver hairs peeking out from a pink knitted toboggan.

In the center of the brown, dusty attic, visible with little light shining down from the window on the opposite wall, sat a feminine figure, half hunched over an old, wooden trunk. Orangish-reddish hair fell loosely into sea-green eyes wide in a distant gaze. Beads of sweat poured down her temples and arms, loose droplets falling to rest against her lips. The sound of ragged breathing echoed in the confined, empty space, shuddering shoulders as heavy intakes of breath and shaky releases soon came to follow.

And then the old woman's voice reached her ears, and her eyes went half lidded before widening again, this time as she whipped her head towards the attic entrance. The little stuffed rabbit in her hand fell from her grasp as she clenched her hands together, fighting off the shaking that came with the moisture rising behind her eyes.

"What's the matter, Peachie?" the old woman asked again, stepping closer to the girl and putting a gentle hand on the top of her head.

The girl breathed a shaky breath, images flashing in her mind of a creature with large talons for hands and cat-like eyes that shone a dark shade of purple. It's ears were long and jagged, one of them chopped to almost a stump, it's lanky build towering over a cluster of trees. It's blood red mouth was slightly ajar, hints of a slithering tongue with a mind of its own behind it. But the creature remained predominantly in the shadows, and many features were still hidden by the darkness.

Through the cloud of tears, she looked up at the woman before her, and spoke as the freshly brewed tears dripped down her cheeks.

"It's happening again, Mamaw. There's  _something_  in the Digital World."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, hello, lovelies! My name is RedChan and you may recognize me (and possibly this story) from FF.net. I've been meaning for so long to upload something here, and since I've just picked this story back up on FF, I figured now was the best time to do it! Also, this is based on the English dub of Digimon, and Tri is currently NOT canon to this story. Just a quick little note: I am a music geek and always find a way to relate music in some way to my stories. Usually in the form of a spotify soundtrack. So in the notes, either beginning or end, is where you'll probably see me mentioning songs from the soundtrack, what they mean, and why you should totally listen to them! Hope you all like it, cuz if you don't, you're prooooooooobably gonna have a bad time ... yeah different fandom reference ... imma go now .... bai!


	2. Digital Disaster

* * *

**Jomei Saito**

* * *

Eight flashing lights flooded the ice cream shop, and Jomei looked down at her cousin as he pulled a yellow and white device from his pocket, staring at its white screen in bewilderment. Blue eyes soon met another pair of blue as they passed around their little crowd, each member bringing out their own devices varying in color and shape. The blonde at the far table held her gaze as she sent silent question after silent question in his direction, her knuckles turning white at how hard she gripped the back of Cody's chair.

The contact was broken as if a switch flipped on, seeming to turn the group into a flurry of panic. Heads whipped back and forth, exchanging worried expressions and soft words coated in concern. Curiosity bubbled in her chest, and Jomei searched every face for any trace of just what was happening, but none seemed to give it away. She could see it though, the hint of the reason behind their worry. As she glanced from person to person, her eyes landed briefly on the smaller girl to her left, Carter. It took a second for her brain to catch up with her, and she sent her eyes back to the other girl, who looked just as lost and confused as she did, but instead of surveying the others, all she did was look down at her hands that lay folded atop each other in her lap.

The erupted chaos suddenly came to a halt as a pair of tanned hands slammed down on the table.

"We need to get to the Digital World," Taichi said, his brown eyes catching Jomei's in that moment. "Izzy, do you have your laptop with you?"

The redhead's cheeks flushed in embarrassment as he scratched his cheek nervously, keeping his eyes trained at the ground. "Not today. It's under maintenance."

Taichi seemed to curse under his breath, his brain running a hundred miles a minute as thought after thought flooded through his mind and dismissed back out.

"I have one," Jomei said, breaking the tense silence around the group. All eyes turned to her, and she took in a deep breath. "At my house. It's like a ten minute walk from here."

For the first time in her life, there wasn't a thing her brain could do to process what was transpiring. Had she heard Taichi correctly? The Digital World? As in the residence of Digimon? What in the world did they have to do with the Digimon? She faintly remembered hearing the stories of the kids who saved the world alongside their Digimon three years ago, but she'd never gotten around to looking too in depth. There was no way these kids had anything to do with that.

Jomei felt the hard, green-eyed stare that bore into her from below, and she looked down to see Cody looking at her in contemplation, his still glowing device clenched tightly in his hand.

There was no way he was one of those heroes; surely she would have known.

"Why are we standing around here just staring at her?" Matt's eyes grabbed the attention of Jomei's as he spoke, walking around the table and gripping her elbow firmly. "Show us the way."

Just like that, Jomei was in motion, her mind on a permanent pause as she waded through the streets, certain of no one's presence aside from Matt, who kept her elbow between his fingers. She guided him (them she hoped) to a door at the bottom of her apartment complex, fishing her key out from beneath the mat with her now free arm and ushering the ten other kids inside.

As soon as she had the front door closed, eleven people packed into the confined space of the entrance hallway, a twelfth member peeked out from the family room.

"Jo?" Just to the left of the group sat a boy, around the age of eleven, with sandy brown hair and crystal blue eyes that observed the group in some kind of disbelieving wonder. One second later, and he came farther into view, the blue of his wheelchair glistening beneath the hallway bulb.

"Hey, Lane, Sweetie," she said softly, walking over and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, to which he immediately started scrubbing, muttering the word, 'gross'. This elicited a smile from his sister. "We're gonna head to my room. Where's Dad?"

Lane rolled his eyes and shrugged, pulling away from the group to replace himself in front of the TV in the family room. "Dunno. But unless you want him to grill your friends, you might wanna make it quick."

Getting to Jomei's room was one story, eleven people trying to go down a narrow hallway, but inside her room was another matter altogether. Each of the Digidestined stood gawking in her doorway until one by one she ushered each of them in. Inside, their expressions of awe weren't any less evident, everyone captivated by what lie beyond their newest associate's bedroom walls.

Not only was the room twice the size of any of their own bedrooms, but the walls were lined inch by inch with bookshelves plastered with books. The wall adjacent to the door held a bright, baby blue bunkbed with white sheets on both beds. The bottom bunk had several drawers that slid out from beneath the mattress, while the top bunk had a canopy that looked like it could be pulled down to serve as a curtain. The rest of the room was rather bare aside from a TV in the top left corner of the room connected to a few gaming consoles and a wooden desk placed directly in front of a window with a laptop sitting idle on top of it.

While everyone seemed to ponder what to do with the space before them, Jomei sat in her computer chair, booting up her laptop and typing furiously at a set of codes that popped up upon start up. When she was finished, she leaned back towards the others.

"Is there anything I need to do before you can do . . . whatever it is you need to do?" Saying it out loud made her almost feel like a colossal idiot. She had just dragged ten people she barely knew (minus Cody) into her home, into her room, all so they could use her laptop for a reason no one had bothered yet to explain.

Koushiro appeared to notice the concern on Jomei's face and walked over, leaning slightly over her to reach the laptop's keyboard. His typing was fast and fluid, much like her own, and she hadn't even realized she'd been staring at his hands as they worked until she heard some kind of ding and he was moving his hands away. She looked towards the screen where something new had popped up. Whatever it was had a complex look to it, and seemed to have a screen of its own. Koushiro once again hit a key or two, and another beep rung out, this time causing the smaller of the two screens to turn red.

"Is this some kind of joke?"

All of the heads in the room turned to face the source of the voice: standing a good distance from the others, leaning against the bedpost, was Carter.

"I'm dragged halfway across town in a place I've never been before, and everyone but me seems to know what's going on," she said, her voice quiet but quivering. "What are those...phones...that you have? Why were they glowing? And why did that make everyone upset?"

It was Taichi this time that moved to answer, an uncomfortable look on his face. "A few really good friends of ours-our best friends, actually-are in trouble. That was them calling for us."

"Ugh! Then why are we still standing around?! The gate's open; I'm going to Veemon!" Davis suddenly sprang forward, brows creased in determination as he moved to stand beside Jomei, holding his strange device up to the laptop.

A white light, one similar to the flashing ones from before, filled the room, temporarily blinding most everyone, and when it faded, the maroon haired boy was no longer standing where he had been before. In fact, he wasn't in the room anymore at all.

"Guess that puts that out of the way," Taichi mumbled under his breath, shaking his head at Davis' rashness. "We'll have time for explanations later; for now our partners need us."

Ken was the next to disappear. Then TK and Kari, quickly followed by Matt, who Jomei could have sworn gave her some kind of wink.

Yolie moved to go next, but then took a step back towards Carter, holding the other girl's hands in her own. "I promise I'll explain all of this when we get back. Don't leave, alright? I did promise to watch out for you today." She gave her hands a squeeze and then a gentle smile before vanishing into the field of light.

Cody now stood beside his cousin, the little yellow device held tightly in his palm. His eyes were downcast, and he fiddled lightly with clenching and unclenching his other fist before decided on leaving it clenched and bravely catching Jomei's eyes.

"I'm really sorry about today. No, about the last three years. When I come back I'll tell you the truth, and then I'll call Mom and ask her if I can stay here tonight."

Jomei smiled warmly at him and ruffled his hair, which had grown into a little brown bush on the top of his head: much more fun to mess with than the scalp thin hair he'd usually kept before.

And then there were four: the ever confused Jomei, the silent, thoughtful Koushiro, the composed-yet-visibly-ticked-off Carter, and the fearless Taichi who crossed his arms and tapped his foot in thought.

"Carter," he called, looking back towards her and placing a small smile on his lips. "Give us a chance; I know this entire day was kind of sprung on you last minute, and our predicament probably isn't helping but-give us a chance." The grin he gave her then lit up his entire face, and he held his little translucent device up to the laptop.

"I'm going to stay and monitor you all from here," Koushiro said, making Taichi raise his brow at him. "I seem to have forgotten my Digivice at home."

Taichi just shrugged his shoulders and immersed himself in the white light, leaving the three of them to stare into the laptop screen with little to no idea what was happening.

"Thank you for your hospitality," came Carter's voice. "But I'd best be going."

Jomei almost tried to convince the younger girl to stay, but before she had a chance the girl had bowed politely and exited her room, giving the door a much harder tug than was necessary. Sighing, she faced her laptop once again, glancing up at Koushiro as he gazed thoughtfully into it as well.

Just what in the world was going on here today?

* * *

**Carter Jones**

* * *

Carter hadn't even intended to follow the group to that Jomei person's house. She'd fully intended to let them all rush out of the ice cream shop, sit dutifully for a few minutes, and then retrieve directions from one of the cashiers on how to get back to the university. However, as the group hurried out, Yolie had taken a hold of Carter's wrist, dragging her along and saying, "It's important, I promise."

Now, the entire group had more or less abandoned her to a foreign place with foreign people, and that in the grand scheme of things, didn't do anything but grind her gears. She hadn't asked for any of this, for the mystery, for the people, and especially not for any empty promises. There was no 'later'; it was simply a measurement of time that didn't exist. Either she was informed right then, or it wasn't important enough for her to know.

That's why she had stormed off. Not because she felt abandoned and hurt, but because it just simply wasn't worth it to sit around and wait on people who didn't care about her and who she had no interest in caring about.

So, as she stood outside of the room, red tints to her cheeks as numbers slowly scaled down in her head, she was surprised to feel the trickle of tears piling up behind her closed eyes. And as she contemplated the reasoning behind the pain that stabbed her chest, a spark of pain in the small of her back had her gasping and opening her eyes wide. That spark continued, sizzling just beneath her skin, shooting up between her shoulder blades, and then what felt like a jolt of electricity traveled from that same spot on her back through her chest, feeling as if the electricity encased her heart and began to squeeze it.

A feeling of intrusion surged through her body; something didn't belong, didn't feel right, and most importantly, it  _hurt_. She clutched at her chest tighter, as if the possibility of ripping her heart out would be less painful. Tears spilled over and she staggered forward, quick, clipped breaths cascading past her lips.

From the living room, the younger boy in the wheelchair could hear the sounds of stumbling in his direction, and he rolled his eyes at his sister's lame attempt to scare him. "I don't wanna ride around today, Jo; go rollin' with your friends or-Woah careful there's a lamp there!"

As he wheeled around to scold his sister, it wasn't his sister but one of the many people she had brought in earlier that he saw. She was hunched over, a pained expression etched on her face that he understood all too well. But before his warning reached her, she'd knocked into the table, collapsing the lamp, and herself, onto the ground.

It was then that another sudden shock hit her, but this time the pressure in her chest intensified to the point that every muscle, every heartstring ached as though she were being torn open. And then for a moment, everything went blank, and when she could finally see in front of her again, the pain had eased, but now in her hands was  _something_ cold and gold and orange and . . . Yolie had something like this, didn't she?

Dazed eyes met confused eyes as the latter made the distance between them smaller and offered the fallen girl his arm. With a grateful smile, Carter put her hand on his forearm and hoisted herself to her feet, bowing courteously to him.

The device in her hand beckoned her attention, and after turning it over a few times, she was still at loss for what exactly she was supposed to do with it. Her brows knit together as she thought of the individuals (namely Yolie) who had these back in the room. What was it they had done? Held it out in front of them like-

Light pierced the room, blinding those around, and as the room began to settle back into its natural glow, only one inhabitant remained.

"Dad is going to be all over this." Lane sighed as he started wheeling into the hallway. "I hope sis knows what she's gotten herself into."

* * *

**Jomei Saito**

* * *

"Jo, why do you make Dad's job so easy?"

The blonde haired girl turned at the sound of her brother's voice, watching him wheel into her room with an exasperated yet amused look on his face. Before she could say a word, he had already opened his mouth to speak again.

"The Digidestined have disappeared too," he said, looking around the room with a slight frown.

Jomei turned fully away from her laptop, nodding to her brother. "Mhmm, they had an emergen-wait did you say 'too'?"

He nodded and wheeled up beside her. "That girl you brought with you, the quiet, cute one. She held something up to the TV and disappeared."

"She wha-! Did you just call Carter 'cute?" She shook her head. "No. No. Roll in here for a minute."

Just as she said, Lane rolled his wheelchair closer to her, stopping just beside Koushiro to peer at the computer screen. "I'm listening. Ask away."

Jomei narrowed her eyes and stuck out her tongue, but then just sighed and crossed her arms. "You called them the 'Digidestined'. What do you mean?"

This time when her brother looked at her, his face was marked with the look of exasperation. "The  _ **Digidestined.**_  Are you saying you don't know who they are?"

"Of course I know who they are, you twerp, but I don't get why you called the-Oh my," immediately she turned her attention to Koushiro. "You guys are  _ **not**_  the famous Digidestined that saved the world three years ago!"

Koushiro nearly fell out of his chair from the sudden way Jomei shook it.

"Uh-Indeed-Jomei-we-are- _ **-could you please stop shaking me**_?"

A blush crawled up the girl's face, and she immediately retracted her hands, holding them securely behind her back.

"Ah, sorry, Koushiro," she said. "How did I  _ **not**_  know my cousin is a Digi-Destined?"

Lane raised his eyebrow. "Because you haven't learned how to use the internet?"

"Oh hush it," she snapped back, face red with embarrassment. "If you knew, I'm surprised you and Cody haven't been all buddy-buddy. You're the biggest Digimon Fanatic I know!"

At that, Lane hung his head, rubbing his fingers up and down the wheels on his chair. "You know how Dad is... And you've been so busy..."

Jomei immediately dropped the conversation at that. Of course she knew how their father was; she knew every fault, every quirk, every  _ **detail**_  that set the man off. And, sadly, he wasn't wrong about how busy she'd been either, but really, she was only so busy so she could find the perfect way to make him smile.

With that thought, she sighed and turned her attention to Koushiro. "So, what are your friends up to in there? Some kind of massive, digital party or something?"

"No," he answered sharply, almost as if he was offended but was trying to remain polite. "We never receive a signal like that for social calls from our partners, and they're never in the Digital World for long. It had to have been an emergency for us to be contacted like that. Besides, that wasn't the work of our partners." He stopped again and turned to face her. "That was the Digital World itself."

* * *

**Carter Jones**

* * *

"Wha-wha-wha-wha- _ **WHAT IS THAT THING?"**_

Confused would have been putting lightly the way Carter felt when she landed face first into a pile gooey mud and crunchy leaves. Worried would have been too great of an understatement when she realized that she was in some kind of decaying forest and  **not**  the bustling city she had been in moments before.  _ **Terrified**_  would have been but on small dot on the scale of fear she felt when-when-when-a  _large, flaming, furry_ _ **THING**_  came charging at her.

It didn't take her long to start running, her clumsy feet stumbling beneath her, knocking her down. Athletics really never were a strong point of hers, and that  _ **thing**_  was catching up on her much faster than she could fall and climb back to her feet with the amount of times she had to.

As if her coordination wasn't bad enough, all it took was one wrong slip of the foot, one wrong step, and suddenly she was being pulled into the air, tangled up in a...a...a  _ **net?!**_

"Wha-what the-How the-" In her fumbling mess, both in words and a feeble attempt to escape the net, she barely caught the beast out of the corner of her eye, and all she could think to do was scream and shut her eyes tight.

" _ **Pepper Breath!"**_

Suddenly, a roar shot out through the forest, loud enough to bust an eardrum if you were close enough (which Carter most definitely was; thankfully she was smart enough to cover her ears). When she uncovered them (still too scared to open her eyes) her ears were met with a momentary silence before a voice filled the air.

"Marsmon! What are you doing? What's got you in such a panic?"

Carter's eyes shot open wide immediately; she  _ **knew**_  that voice!

"Tai!" she called out.

His eyes caught hers for a moment as he gave her a reassuring smile before he took on a serious expression, turning his attention back to the beast (Marsmon, was that what he called it?). At that, Carter decided to do the same, and that sense of dread from before came pouring back into her.

Whatever this 'Marsmon' was, it definitely wasn't something she wanted to get acquainted with. The creature was large; she hadn't overexaggerated that: even as she hug from the tree, it's head was a good two or three feet above her. It's head looked almost like a mix between a sabertooth tiger and a unicorn, with a little bit of leopard spots stuck on for fun. It's torso was a brilliant red, scorched with flames that seemed to have no effect on the creature what-so-ever. The rest of it looked like it was dressed in some kind of medieval warrior garb; it really looked like something out of a kid's cartoon.

It snorted in reply to Tai's statement, eyes gazing hard at Carter which caused her to squeal. Again, it snorted and focused back on Tai, crossing it's massive arms ( _How was that even_ _ **possible**_ _with those gauntlets?!)_

"With the state the Digital World is in, you'd charge head first into any intruders yourself, human."

While the voice was definitely the deep, throaty growl she had anticipated, it still made her shiver and cower back, despite having nowhere to cower to.

"What happened here, Marsmon? Why does it look like . . . everything is  _ **dying?"**_

"If we knew, we would have found a way to fix it already.  _That's_  why you Chosen Children were called here: to figure it out."

Tai sighed exasperatedly and put his hands on his hips, forming a smile that almost said 'well, what can you do?'.

"Can you at least let my friend down?" He asked, pointing up towards the helpless girl.

With a grunt, Marsmon did as asked, yanking the net down from the top and setting in on the ground. As she fumbled with the mesh, trying to find a way out, she heard heavy footsteps thudding away, followed by grumbled words that she couldn't make out. In her predicament, she huffed and puffed at just how much  _ **more**_  tangled she ended up in the net.

"Let me help!" said another voice, not belonging to Tai or Marsmon, but higher and raspier.

She heard the sound of tearing, and then the net fell away into a heap around her. When she looked up to see who helped her, she jumped back in shock at the yellow, dinosaur-like  **thing.**  There sure were a lot of _ **things**_  in this wherever-she-was.

Tai's laughter brought her out of the shocked state she was stuck in, looking up just in time to see him offer a hand out to her.

"You're not hurt are you?" he asked as she grabbed hold of his hand and hoisted her up.

Carter was definitely shorter than Tai by at least five or six inches, if not more, and his mountain of hair was  _ **definitely**_  not helping in that matter. She wondered exactly how tall he was, and if his hair was measured into that or if it had it's own height completely separate from-

"I'm fine," she answered in a small voice, still holding onto Tai's hand like a lifeline.

His smile never faltered, and he let the younger girl keep his hand in her grasp as he spoke. "How'd you get here anyway? The Digital World is no place for people without partners; it's pretty dangerous."

Carter looked up, brows furrowed and mouth in a thin line before reaching into her pocket with her free hand and pulling out the device that had suddenly appeared earlier. "I think this brought me here."

Tai's eyes widened to twice their size, and the open-mouthed look of surprise didn't hang around long as his lips spread into a grin.

"Looks like we've definitely got a new adventure on our hands. I wonder how Davis will feel about not being the newest generation of Digidestined anymore!" Tai said, breaking out into a fit of laughter.

When Carter gingerly removed her hand from his, the older boy seemed to calm down, and reached out to grab her hand again. "Let's go find the others: We've got  _ **a lot**_  of explaining to do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ello, ello, again! Just a quick note: This chapter is up so quick because I already had both of these up on FF! The third chapter and ones to come will take a little longer. So, I'm not just spitting out chapters; I was just too lazy to upload both of them back to back in the same day! xD


End file.
